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In the 1600s malaria spread through Asia, Africa and Southern Europe and wreaked havoc on communities that were ill-prepared to defend themselves against the devastating impact of the disease.

When Jesuit monks discovered that quinine, found in the bark of the Ecuadorian tree cinchona officinalis (quina fina de Loja), could be used to treat the disease, demand for the tree spread throughout the world, especially in the British colonies in tropical regions.

At first, consuming the bark was not easy because it had a particularly bitter flavour. So, in an effort to overcome this problem, British soldiers stationed in India mixed the quinine extract with sugar, water, lime and their gin ration, and thereby invented the cocktail today known as the gin and tonic.

In 2009, when Alex Gledhill co-founded Quina Fina tonic water, he wanted to create a traditional variation of tonic water that contained the bark of cinchona. However, after following his research to the Ecuadorian province of Loja – the natural habitat of cinchona – he discovered that the tree was on the brink of extinction due to deforestation caused by the high demand for the antimalarial properties found in the bark.

Despite the obvious encumbrance that this posed to his desire to make an authentic variation of the mixer, Gledhill did not change his goal. Instead, he initiated a fund-raising project in conjunction with the University of Loja dedicated to creating a sustainable plantation of cinchona trees in Ecuador.

“We drink a lot of tonic water, but we don’t really know what it is and what quinine is,” says Gledhill in an interview posted on the University of Loja’s YouTube channel. “It’s very important that we produce the cinchona ourselves and create a sustainable harvest of the bark.”

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Why we like it: In a slightly dystopic and animalistic car spot, Mitsubishi has promoted its new Triton Huntaway II. The video sees the utetravelling over rugged Wellington terrain and highlights the vehicles multiple features. The campaign is based on exclusivity as Mitsubishi’s new ute has just 20 up for grabs. To provide further hype to its audience, the ad finishes with the line, “if you don’t catch it now, you won’t see it for dust”.

Who’s it for:2degrees by DDB

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Who’s it for: TVNZ by TVNZ’s Blacksand

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